


Tom and Cecil's anniversary

by makerofaqueen



Series: Cotton candy outtakes [1]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Anniversary, Arguing, Fluff, Gay Love, M/M, Making Up, ace characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-22
Updated: 2018-04-22
Packaged: 2019-04-26 06:56:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14396697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/makerofaqueen/pseuds/makerofaqueen
Summary: As per request here's the conchell anniversary from Tom's pov. Also his and Cecil's anniversary.





	Tom and Cecil's anniversary

Tom was bawling his eyes out. It had been a long time since he had cried this much and that was mostly thanks to Cecil Markowitz. Cecil had made his life a lot happier than it had used to be.

Before he started dating Cecil, Tom had been shy to the point of socially anxious and hardly ever participated in anything around camp unless he had at least one sibling around. That had changed this past year. Now he did things around camp with his boyfriend and he had actually managed to make some friends since coming out of his shell. One of them was, to people’s big surprise, the black haired, whiskey-soaked, bad-boy of the Aphrodite cabin, Castor. Said bad-boy was now trying to comfort Tom by awkwardly patting his back while Tom cried like there was no tomorrow. Comforting people wasn’t one of Castor’s best traits, but to his credit he did try. He had seen Mitchell do it on more than one occasion. Once Tom felt like he was out of tears he mumbled:

‘W-why would he d-d-do so-some-e-thing like that?’

Castor stared at the now rather sad-looking daffodil lying on the ground next to the red-nosed Athena boy.

‘Because he’s an idiot,’ Castor grumbled. When he got a frown from Tom he continued: ‘I didn’t mean it like that. I just… Do you want to talk to him and ask that, maybe?’

Tom nodded, but then he shook his head. He was in no shape to put Cecil Markowitz against the wall and make him explain his actions. Castor sighed audibly behind him.

‘I’ll talk to him, then.’

‘Y-you don’t h-have to.’

‘Of course I don’t, but my very good friend is sad and I don’t particularly like that.’

‘Friend?’

‘You, idiot.’

‘Oh…’

‘Look, I don’t feel good leaving you here like this so you’re gonna have to come with me. I’m dropping you off with someone who can look after you. Do you want to go to your own cabin?’

Tom nodded, so Castor pulled him to his feet and slung his arm around his shoulders, then he steered him towards the Athena cabin. Luckily, Annabeth was sitting cross-legged on her bunk, typing on her laptop. She looked up when the two boys entered.

‘Hey, Annabeth,’ Castor said and indicated Tom with his free hand.

‘Gods, Tommy, what happened?’

‘His idiot boyfriend yelled at him.’

Tom couldn’t speak for himself because he had started crying again. Big tears were rolling down his cheeks and he was silently sobbing into his hands.

‘I-I thought he lo-lo-loved me,’ Tom whispered as Castor sat him down in Annabeth’s arms.

‘He does, honey, of course he does. That he yelled at you doesn’t mean that he doesn’t love you anymore. Come on, you’re smart enough to know that,’ Annabeth cooed.

Tom shrugged. He was honestly beaten right now, both Annabeth and Castor could tell. Castor sighed and sat down on the bunk next to Annabeth’s.

‘For some reason Cecil snapped when he saw the daffodil Tom was wearing behind his ear today. He yelled something about him having had enough of fucking flowers for a fucking lifetime and then he just left. I had to pick up the mess.’

‘Oh, no! But that was all my fault. I put that flower there. I thought you looked so pretty,’ she said to her brother.

‘I did too,’ Tom muttered, still with his face in his hands.

Castor got out of his seat. Annabeth frowned up at him.

‘Where do you think you’re going?’

‘I have a son of Hermes to bea… _talk_ some sense into,’ Castor growled before he cracked his knuckles and left. When he had exited the cabin Tom sighed.

‘W-what am I g-g-going to do?’

‘Look, all I know is Cecil loves you very much and I’m sure this is just a big misunderstanding. Something is probably bothering him and he lashed out at you without realizing you would take it personally.’

‘W-well… h-he has been r-r-rather irritated a-about t-this whole thing w-with M-m-mi-itchell leaving C-connor all these flowers. H-he says they’re e-everywhere.’

‘Then there you go. He’s probably had enough of flowers for a while. It’ll be fine, Tommy, I swear to the gods. That Hermes boy is crazy about you.’

 

\----------------------------

 

Castor caught up with Amalia, Travis and Connor outside of the dining pavilion. He realized he had totally missed dinner because he was busy comforting Tom and now he was hungry. It didn’t really help his mood any.

‘Where is Markowitz?’ Castor growled. Travis and Connor simultaneously winced. It was eerie watching them do the same face with… with the same face, really. If it wasn’t for Connor being all but covered in freckles Castor wouldn’t stand a chance in hell to keep the two brothers apart.

‘I’m not sure…’ Travis started.

‘He’s not really in the mood…’ Connor continued.

‘He’s in the armory,’ Amalia said. When the two boys looked at her with incredulous looks on their faces she just shrugged and said: ‘Better to get it over and done with. This one isn’t going to back down, even I can see that. I’ll be at Kayla’s if you need me to pick up the pieces.’ She left them standing there feeling really awkward about themselves. Castor started towards the armory, rolling up his sleeves in the process.

‘Don’t break too many bones,’ Connor shouted after him.

‘Nice save, bro,’ Travis said and patted his shoulder.

 

\--------------------------

 

Cecil was sitting on the floor of the armory with his knees pulled up to his chin. He was hiding his face behind them and sniffling. What the hell was it with people crying around Castor today?

‘Go away, Cas,’ Cecil said when he crouched in front of him.

‘You’re crying.’

‘Duh. Nice observation.’

Castor sat down next to him and leaned his back against the wall.

‘Come one, Markowitz, don’t be an idiot. I’ve already spent hours trying to console your boyfriend and trying to convince him you being stupid don’t necessarily means you two are broken up. I don’t have the energy to do this again. You made me miss dinner.’

‘He thinks we’re broken up?’

‘What did you expect? You’re dating the worst tight-knit bundle of nerves at camp. He spends every day trying to convince himself that he’s good enough for you. His self-esteem didn’t need this.’

‘He does that?’

Castor nodded.

‘Huh. He’s never told me that.’

‘His name is Tom Winters, of course he hasn’t,’ Castor deadpanned.

‘Well now I feel even shittier than before.’

Castor patted him on the shoulder.

‘Well, you’ve earned it,’ he said and got up and left. He walked up to the door, then he paused and walked back to Cecil. He extended his hand towards the Hermes boy. ‘Give me twenty bucks.’

Cecil looked up with him with a confused look on his face.

‘What do you need twenty bucks for?’

‘As I said, you made me miss dinner, so now you’re buying me a pizza.’

Cecil grumbled but fished out his wallet and handed Castor a twenty dollar note. Castor smiled down at him and ruffled his hair before he turned around and walked away. Cecil watched him leave and sighed to himself. He was going to need some serious help to fix this mess.

 

\---------------------------

 

Travis was sitting in his bunk fiddling with a small device that Cecil recognized as a lock. He was taking it apart and spreading the pieces on his cover. It was stained with oil and grease. Cecil sat down opposite him and started wiping off the parts for him. They worked like that in silence for a while until they were finished and Travis had put the entire lock back together. He tested the key and was content when it turned smoothly. When he put it down, he said:

‘Did Castor find you?’

Cecil nodded.

‘Did he hurt you?’

‘Only mentally.’ Travis raised an eyebrow and looked at him questioningly. Cecil continued: ‘He made me realize that having a boyfriend with anxiety means you sometimes have to be careful with how you express yourself, that’s all. I haven’t been, and it hurt Tom more than I thought it would. I feel like an ass.’

‘You _are_ an ass, and so am I, we’re _Hermes kids_ , it’s basically in our DNA. However, we are also great at making up for it. That you can ask anyone who has ever dated a Hermes kid. So what’s your plan?’

‘I… don’t really have one yet. All I know is I have some serious making up to do and I need your help. You’re like the master of making things up to people. You’ve hurt Katie like twice as many times as Connor has hurt Mitchell, not to mention how many Amalia has hurt Kayla. Now that I think of it, has she ever?’

‘No, but she’s the odd one out in our bunch.’

‘Are you sure she’s _really_ a Hermes kid?’

‘I’m… not sure. I have to ask her.’

‘We’re getting sidetracked. Speaking of all the time’s you’ve hurt Katie…’

Travis rolled his eyes, but when he thought about it he realized that Cecil was right. How in Hades had he managed to keep her all this time? Alright, no time to think about that now, he had another relationship to save. Nice that it wasn’t his own for a change.

‘Well, this whole thing started with flowers, right? So I’d start there. Get him the biggest bouquet of red roses you can get your hands on.’

‘Gods I’m so fucking sick of flowers,’ Cecil muttered, but he understood what Travis was trying to get at. He needed to show Tom he acknowledged that Tom was right and he was wrong.

‘Also, you should probably try to give them to him in relative privacy because I don’t think his anxiety handles grand gestures well.’

‘I suppose not. Thanks, Trav.’

‘Anytime, bro.’

 

\-------------------------

 

Cecil tapped on the window by Annabeth’s bunk in the Athena cabin the day after. She looked over her shoulder and noticed Cecil standing awkwardly outside. She opened the window and rested her arms on the windowsill.

‘S’up Markowitz?’ she asked. Trying not to look directly at the flowers he was holding. They were too many and for some reason she had been iffy about red roses ever since Tartarus. They were the same color as some… things… down there.

‘Is… is Tom in there?’

‘Nope. He’s in arts and crafts. Took three people to coax him out of the cabin and actually get there, but still.’

‘He’s worse off than I thought,’ Cecil said. He wiped a tear in his eye and swallowed the lump in his throat.

‘Obviously,’ Annabeth said.

‘Wait, why aren’t _you_ in arts and crafts?’

‘Because I had a feeling you’d be dropping in today,’ she said and raised an eyebrow. ‘I wasn’t wrong.’

Cecil nodded thoughtfully.

‘When’s he getting back?’

‘In fifteen minutes or so. You have enough time to prep. Wanna come in?’

‘Yeah.’

Cecil walked around the cabin and in through the door. The cabin was empty as promised. He placed the flowers and candy on the bunk and also a card that simply said _I’m sorry /Cecil_ before he took a step back to eye his handiwork.

‘I think he’ll be pleased by this. Do you want to stick around and see how he reacts?’

‘Yeah, I do but I think that I should give him some space also. I don’t want to force myself on him if he doesn’t want to see me or if he gets too flustered by this.’

‘You know, you’re doing good by coming to his cabin. Just leave him alone until he’s comfortable enough to come and talk to you.’

‘Yeah, I figured as much. Thanks Annabeth.’

‘You’re welcome. He really loves you, you know.’

Cecil blushed a little.

‘I was kinda hoping. He never says so.’

‘He doesn’t have the courage, but there’s a hundred ways of saying I love you without using those actual words. You just have to learn to listen.’

Cecil nodded as he left the cabin. While he was walking through the green he saw Tom and his siblings exiting the arts and crafts cabin. Cecil stopped dead in his tracks and looked at Tom while he walked across the grass. Tom didn’t see him so Cecil could stare all he wanted. Tom’s blonde hair was shining in the sunlight but he looked so weighed down, tired and sad. Cecil started crying. He hated seeing his boyfriend like this and he only hoped that Tom would ever forgive him.

 

\------------------------------

 

Tom walked into his cabin and froze on the door step. His sibling’s chatter died down as everyone took in the giant bouquet on his nightstand.

‘Wow…’ Malcolm whispered. ‘He really went out of his way.’

Tom was shaking like a leaf when he opened the card. Somehow convinced that this was Cecil’s weird way of breaking up with him, he was scared to death to read it because he figured that if that was the case he didn’t want to read it. The card just said: _I’m sorry_ and that made Tom start crying again. He sobbed loudly and big tears were streaming down his cheeks. Annabeth enveloped him in a hug and rocked him a little while he cried himself dry against her shoulder. Sometimes it felt nice being short and being able to lean against anyone’s shoulder, really. When Tom didn’t have any tears left he looked at the flowers and the chocolate and whispered so only Annabeth could hear him:

‘W-w-will y-you c-c-come with me?’

‘Sure thing, sweetie. Want to go right away?’

He nodded into her shoulder, too flustered to look at her. She took his hand to ground him as they walked across the green.

Annabeth scanned the entry to the Hermes cabin and realized that all the traps had been disabled. No doubt the cabin was waiting for them. She knocked on the door and Connor opened.

‘Annie! How nice to see you. Hi, Tom. Nice to see you, too.’

Tom hid his red face behind his sister but offered Connor a small wave. He knew Connor quite good at this point and he liked him, even if he was one of the biggest pranksters at camp. To his credit not one prank had ever been directed at Tom so he thought that maybe Connor realized that Tom’s anxiety wasn’t going to be able to handle that.

‘So are you guys here for any particular reason?’

Annabeth glanced at Tom who looked like he wanted to die and said:

‘Yeah, we’re here to see Cecil.’

‘Oh! Alright, come on in.’

Cecil was sitting in his bunk staring into the opposite wall and looked rather deflated as they entered. Annabeth felt for him. He had fucked up and he knew it. Cecil didn’t perk up like he usually did when Connor walked over to him:

‘Cec, there’s two Athena kids here to see you,’ Connor said as he put his hand on Cecil’s shoulder. Cecil took a few seconds to register what Connor said before he looked towards the door and noticed Annabeth and Tom standing there. Cecil was quickly on his feet and walked up to Tom who was too nervous to look at him. Annabeth handed Cecil his hand and Cecil took it. Tom peeked up at him and Cecil smiled hesitantly.

‘Want to go sit on the porch for a little while?’ Cecil asked. Tom looked at their siblings and nodded so Cecil pulled him with him outside.

Annabeth sat down on Connor’s bunk and sighed. He held his arms out and she crawled into his lap and leaned her head on his shoulder. True to his habit Connor handed her a chocolate bar which she gratefully accepted. Mitchell wasn’t the only one he fed on a regular basis.

‘Sometimes being a senior counselor is exhausting,’ she said between chewing.

‘That’s why we have each other… and chocolate,’ Connor joked. Annabeth smiled to herself. She loved Connor like a brother. Always had. When he and Travis were new at camp someone had to watch out for the scrawny boy who always seemed to get himself in trouble and Annabeth had adopted him. He was one of her absolute best friends outside of the seven.

‘Think they’ll sort it out?’ he continued, jutting his chin towards the door.

‘Sure they will. There’s going to be a lot of stuttering and blushing from both parties but yeah, they’ll figure it out.’

 

\---------------------------

 

Tom sat down on the porch swing and gazed out at the green. Cecil sat down next to him, still holding his hand but not saying anything. His fingers on the other hand were twitching, not being used to being idle for too long. Travis used to call it a Hermes problem, having restless hands. Probably why most of them made excellent pickpocketers. Tom glanced over at his boyfriend. He knew he was torturing Cecil but he also kind of felt like he deserved to squirm a little. Finally, when he couldn’t stay quiet anymore, Cecil said:

‘So… are you going to forgive me for being an idiot?’

Tom glanced over at him and nodded slowly. He was blushing heavily. Cecil squeezed his hand.

‘Look, I know I messed up and I know how hard it must have been for you…’

‘N-no y-y-you don’t.’

Cecil went quiet and watched Tom.

‘Y-you have no i-idea. I w-w-was _so_ convinced t-t-that we were b-broken up, j-just because… b-because my anxi-i-iety… No. Y-you don’t know.’

Cecil sighed and ran his free hand through his hair.

‘You’re right,’ he said eventually. ‘I don’t know how much harder this stuff hits you than it does others, all I can do is try to understand. I really want to try that, if you’ll let me. If we can get over this. I didn’t mean to hurt you, I hope you can understand that much.’

Tom nodded. He could understand that.

‘I… I didn’t sleep,’ he said eventually. Cecil tilted his head and eyed him, his eyes silently urging Tom to continue talking and not close up now. ‘I… I k-k-kept thinking that y-you di-di-di-di-didn’t love me a-anymore. T-the entire night I w-was crying, w-w-wondering what I-I’d do i-if you…’ Tom didn’t really know how to express himself so he hid his face in Cecil’s shoulder.

‘So you forgive me?’

He nodded into Cecil.

‘J-just don’t d-d-do it a-again.’

Cecil chuckled.

‘I’ll do my best. Now, I believe I owe you a one year anniversary date. Want to join me on top of our tower?’

Tom smiled into Cecil’s shoulder. Yes, he wanted to.

**Author's Note:**

> Come befriend me at tumblr!


End file.
